BEREA -- As long as Eric Mangini is head coach of the Browns he will be linked with his offensive coordinator, Brian Daboll.

There is no doubt the offense has been more productive this season than in 2009 when everything was aligned for failure; Daboll was a first-year offensive coordinator, the quarterback of the week was chosen by default, the receivers couldn't catch the ball and the Browns didn't have a running game worth scheming against until the last month of the season.

This time around, the Browns aren't exactly burning out scoreboard lights Sunday after Sunday, but they have scored 172 points, which is 94 more than they scored through nine games last season. That's an average of 10 more points per game.

"Any time you get experience doing something it helps you," Daboll said on Friday. "On top of that, year two you have coaches and players who know what your expectations are. And you have some new players, too. You get a little better when you have a guy like Peyton Hillis or Ben Watson. The quarterbacks have done a good job, too.

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"You constantly look to get better every week. Make split-second decisions. You have belief in the players and them going out and executing the play. The experience you get from each practice has been a positive."

Each game Daboll will use a call sheet with 150 to 160 plays on it. The sheet is broken down into 25 specific color-coded sections such as inside zone runs, outside zone runs, play-action, Wildcat, Josh Cribbs plays, third-and-1, third and 2-5, five red-zone sections, empty backfield, three-step drop, etc.

"Some plays we're going to run because they're our bread and butter," Daboll said. "There are different plays each week. They're not dramatically different because we've been working on them, but they're tailored to the defenses we play."

Daboll has worked with five starting quarterbacks in his brief time as offensive coordinator. Sunday he will be calling plays for Colt McCoy for the fifth-straight game. That is one game short of the six-straight started by Brady Quinn last year between games nine through 14. The others are Derek Anderson last season and Jake Delhomme plus Seneca Wallace this season.

Players are seeing a more confident Daboll this season. Turnovers are down and touchdowns are up. So are trick plays.

The Browns scored from the 11 against New England on a trick play with Cribbs at quarterback. Cribbs handed to Chansi Stuckey quickly and then led the Patriots defense on a false scent by running to the right. Stuckey ran around left end to the front corner of the end zone for a touchdown.

"I think people were hard on him at the beginning of last year -- fans, everybody," tackle Joe Thomas said. "He felt a lot of pressure to succeed. This was a lifelong dream for him after starting with the Patriots.

"Once he started having success and he figured out what was working for us last year, you could see that confidence growing. He was willing to start throwing in the trick plays. It carried over from last year but you could really see it in the New Orleans game when he called that throwback to Colt."

The Browns were grinding out the clock and protecting a 20-10 lead in New Orleans, when they faced a third-and-6 at the Saints 44. Alex Mack snapped the ball directly to Hillis, who threw a pass to McCoy for 13 yards and a first down. The Browns milked another 2:26 off the clock before Phil Dawson kicked a 48-yard field goal.

An incomplete pass in that situation could have been a disaster because the Saints would have taken possession with eight minutes left, but Daboll had the conviction to call the throwback and it worked. The Stuckey touchdown followed a week later.

Daboll could be hamstrung in Jacksonville. Cribbs missed practice again Friday because of dislocated toes on his right foot. Mangini is hoping Cribbs will be better today and be able to play Sunday, but Cribbs might have to sit this one out. He is listed as questionable. Twenty plays on Daboll's call sheet are designed for Cribbs.

Last week, Daboll was outside the locker room talking on his cell phone in the aftermath of losing 26-20 to the Jets, visibly crushed about not being able to win. The Brows had two chances in overtime, but Stuckey fumbled on the Jets 32 while trying to gain extra yards and McCoy missed a pass to Mohamed Massaquoi in Jets territory.

"It was tough to lose," Daboll said. "It was a great game. I give our guys a lot of credit. They played their butts off against a tough defense. It came down to the end with 1:35 remaining. We thought we had a good play. They were expecting run. We had Ben down the pipe and missed it."

For Daboll, his elevation to offensive coordinator was the culmination of a steady progression. He was a defensive assistant with the Patriots in 2000-01 and New England's wide receivers coach from 2002-06. He was the Jets quarterback coach under Mangini in 2007 and '08.

Mangini said Daboll's time with the defense in New England has helped him as an offensive coordinator.

"It's radically different being a coordinator than a position coach," Mangini said Friday. "The more experience you have, the easier it gets to adjust.

"Those situations are always stressful. You have to make a ton of really important decisions in 40 seconds which include choosing personnel, getting the play called and getting it to the quarterback. If there's a check in the call you have to give him more time. There are all those components. I think Brian has made tremendous strides since I've been back with him."

Coaches work 15 hours, 16 hours or more a day during the season. They are usually in their offices or a meeting room with players when they are not on the practice field.

But even in the cocoon at team headquarters in Berea, Daboll was aware of the criticism he got last year - and still gets from disgruntled fans. The heat on Daboll is not what it once was, but it is still there when the offense sputters as it did last week when Reggie Hodges ended up punting from his own end zone after the incomplete pass to Watson, a run and a sack on the Browns final possession.

"You have a firm belief in what you've learned as a head coach," Daboll said. "I've got to work for some pretty good ones. People have been critical of them, too. Some of them have three Super Bowl rings as a head coach.

"You can't let anything affect you. You have to believe in a system. You have to believe in the fundamentals you've been taught. You have to believe in the players and you have to coach and teach them. You present it to the players and you make them do it."

That coach with the three Super Bowl rings is Bill Belichick. He believed in a system and stuck with it. Mangini and Daboll are doing the same.